Mediagazer: French newspaper Libération hangs in the balance as shareholders push change, staff revolt (Sarah Moroz/New York Times)

7:55 AM ET, May 19, 2014

Top News:

Editor's Exit at The Times Puts Tensions on Display — Back in 2010, before she became executive editor of The New York Times, Jill Abramson sent me a handwritten attaboy note about a big story. It still hangs in my cubicle: “You wrote a story about the trashing of a once great American institution and people never tire of that.”

Kara Swisher / Re/code:

Dear Jill: From One Pushy Media Dame to Another — Let me be perfectly clear when it comes to ousted New York Times executive editor Jill Abramson: She has, on some occasions I have spent time with her, scared the bejesus out of me. — That said, it was in a very good way.

Discussion: @joshuatopolsky, @choire, @antderosa, Poynter, @joannastern, @moorehn, Mashable, Globe and Mail, The Wrap and Capital New York

Ken Auletta / New Yorker:

Guardian's Gibson weighs in on NYT and Abramson: “Jill should not have been hung out to dry” — Why Jill Abramson Was Fired: Part III — In my last post exploring why Jill Abramson was fired as executive editor of the New York Times by Arthur O. Sulzberger, Jr. …

Discussion: @jswatz, @molly_knight, @buzzfeedandrew, @jamesrbuk, @dylanbyers, @moorehn, @jamesrbuk, @jayrosen_nyu, @jonathanchait, @nycjim, @alexberenson, The Corsair, The Rumpus.net and Mashable

Dylan Byers / Politico:

Sources: Sulzberger fired Abramson because he felt she misled him, others in recruiting Gibson — Sulzberger's last straw — New York Times publisher Arthur Sulzberger fired executive editor Jill Abramson after concluding that she had misled both him and chief executive Mark Thompson during …

Discussion: bookforum.com, @karaswisher, @ryantate, New York Magazine, Pressing Issues, Capital New York, @freddoso, @lpolgreen, @catekustanczy, @kailijoy and @tcarmody

Edmund Lee / Bloomberg:

Times Editor Inherits Business Battles Fought by Abramson — Dean Baquet is a veteran of the turf battles between editorial and business departments. As the new executive editor of the New York Times Co., he'll have to navigate that terrain at a moment when the lines between newsgathering and moneymaking are blurring as never before.

Dylan Byers / Politico:
NYT publisher Arthur Sulzberger publicly defends firing of Abramson, citing poor management, denies pay issues

Susan B. Glasser / Politico:
Female journalists in leadership positions keep getting stuck in “editing while female” trap

Discussion: Washington Post, @dannysullivan, The Buttry Diary, @miriamelder, @davidfolkenflik, @buzzfeedben, @erikwemple, @themarkberman, @lheron and New York Times

AT&T:

AT&T agrees to acquire DirecTV in stock-and-cash deal for $95 per share — AT&T to Acquire DIRECTV — Creates Content Distribution Leader Across Mobile, Video & Broadband Platforms — The premier pay TV brand with the best content relationships now poised to deliver video to multiple screens …

Discussion: New York Times, Wall Street Journal, VentureBeat, Bloomberg, The Verge, TechCrunch, Washington Post, Re/code, Home Media Magazine, Engadget, Variety, Electronista, Forbes, Mashable and Gigaom

BuzzFeed:

AT&T Buys DirecTV For $67 Billion In Second Major Deal To Reshape TV Industry — The deal, announced Sunday night after roughly a month of negotiations, follows Comcast's impending acquisition of Time Warner Cable for $45.2 billion. Both deals will face intense regulatory scrutiny. — AP

Discussion: Variety, @peterlauria3, New York Times and Bloomberg

Nathan Mattise / Ars Technica: AT&T and DirecTV vow to follow FCC's 2010 net neutrality guidelines for three years after deal closes

Steve Kovach / Business Insider: DirecTV deal valued at $48.5B, or $67.1B with debt; AT&T frames purchase as a way to extend internet access to rural areas

Todd Spangler / Variety:

YouTube to Acquire Videogame-Streaming Service Twitch for $1 Billion: Sources — Deal would be biggest ever for YouTube — Google's YouTube has reached a deal to buy Twitch, a popular videogame-streaming company, for more than $1 billion, according to sources familiar with the pact.

Discussion: Ars Technica, TechCrunch, The Daily Caller, Guardian, Fortune, Electronista, Pocket-lint, @errorjustin, @jenabellalol, The Next Web, @drew, USA Today, The Verge, iMore, @amir, Tech2, Engadget, Re/code, Business Insider, The Verge, Washington Post, @amir, VentureBeat, @drew, Gigaom, Digital Spy, Mashable, Beet.TV and 24/7 Wall St.

Wall Street Journal:

Google's acquisition talks with Twitch still at an early stage — Google in Talks About Possible Acquisition of Twitch — Google's Talks With Live Video-Streaming Service at Early Stage — Google Inc. is in talks about a possible acquisition of Twitch, a fast-growing live video-streaming service …

Discussion: @ow and @benfritz

Margalit Fox / New York Times:

William Worthy, a Reporter Drawn to Forbidden Datelines, Dies at 92 — William Worthy, a foreign correspondent who in the thick of the Cold War ventured where the United States did not want him to go — including the Soviet Union, China, Cuba — and became the subject of both a landmark …

Discussion: Nieman Reports, The Boston Globe, @mlcalderone, @qhardy, @jackshafer and Whistleblower Protection Blog

Sarah Moroz / New York Times:

French newspaper Libération hangs in the balance as shareholders push change, staff revolt — Libération Covering a Civil War. Its Own. — PARIS — What would Jean-Paul Sartre say? — Libération, the left-wing newspaper co-founded by the French philosopher and critic in 1973, is fighting for its life.

Discussion: @nousjournal and @oliviertesquet